because we have experienced the extent of that power; our enemies that would be, but who, on this account, will not be so, know it, because they see its effect here, and dread its effect among themselves. If, however, that catastrophe, which his majesty's ministers have taken the best means to avert, and which, in all human probability, will be averted, should unhappily fall upon us, whatever may be our burthens, whatever may be the difficulties with which we may have to contend, let but his majesty's government act steadily up to the principles they have avowed, and let the country but remain true to itself, and I have no fear of the rest,

means of saving a disbursement ten times the amount, with interest, aye, and of compound interest, at a future time; and when the risking the loss of a thousand men now, although the necessity of such an alternative was sufficient in itself to excite horror and regret, might avert the sacrifice of ten thousand lives hereafter, and might have the effect of preventing a war when our resources should be crippled-a war of boundless extent, in which it should be observed, that other powers besides Spain might take part, and of which it might be truly said, that no man could foresee where it would end. I entirely agree (said Mr. Brougham) in all that has been said of the hazards and difficulties Mr. Bright dissented from the propoinseparable from war, and I was certainly sition, that a casus fœderis had arisen, or one of those who held, some years ago, that the present was an occasion on which that looking to the burthens under which the honour and character of the country this country laboured, we were under se- required the adoption of the course pointed vere recognizances to keep the peace. I out by the right hon. Secretary. The know the severity of these burthens; but hon. member read an extract from the if I feel their weight, if I feel apprehen- treaty of 1703, and argued, that the only sive, as who must not, of their effect, in instance in which it warranted an intercase this most necessary measure-a mea- ference by Great Britain was when not sure which, upon all reasonable probabili- only acts of oppression had been committies, must prove effectual-should, unhap-ted, but when a hostile power was actually pily fail, I cannot but rely on those sound, enlightened, liberal, and truly English principles principles worthy of our best times, and of our most distinguished statesmen, which now govern the councils of this country in her foreign policy, and inspire the eloquence of the right honourable Secretary with a degree of fervor, energy, and effect, extraordinary and unprecedented in this House unprecedented (I can give it no higher praise) even in the eloquence of the right honourable gentleman. I feel that in these principles, now adopted and avowed by the organs of our government, we have a strong and impregnable bulwark, which will enable us not only to support our burthens, and, should the day of trial come upon us, to meet the combined world in arms, but which will afford the strongest practical security against future danger; and render it eminently improbable that we shall ever have that combined world to contend with, so long as those principles are maintained. Our burthens may remain, but our government know that when the voice of the people is in their favour, they have a lever, if not within their hands, within their grasp. I will imitate the discretion of the Secretary, and go no further. We know,

waging war with Portugal, in which case this country was bound to go to war with all its might. Neither of these contingencies he contended, was the state of the present case. The occupation of Portugal with five thousand men was merely a state of armed neutrality, instead of a compliance with the compact of the treaty; namely, that we should wage war with all our might. But the occasion for our fulfilment of this obligation had not arisen, for Portugal was not now reduced to the necessity of repelling an attack by a foreign power. Her assailants were exiles who had taken refuge in Spain. The country was divided; and, if England were to side with either party, she would only be taking part in a civil war. He felt himself called upon, at the eve of a momentous train of events, to declare his conviction, that no casus fœderis had arisen, and that no event was shown to have yet occurred in Portugal which called for the interposition of this country in the way proposed by ministers.

Mr. Secretary Canning said:-I rise, Sir, for the purpose of making a few observations, not so much in answer to any general arguments, as in reply to two or three particular objections which have been urged against the Address which I

tilities in the ear, to that of the gallant and chivalrous member for Bristol, who would let aggressions ripen into full maturity, in order that they may then be mowed down with the scythe of a magnificent war.

My hon. friend, the member for Dorsetshire, will now see why it is that no papers have been laid before the House. The facts which call for our interference

have had the honour to propose to the House. In the first place, I frankly admit to my hon. friend, the member for Dorsetshire, that I have understated the case against Spain-I have done so designedly I warned the House that I would do so-because I wished no further to impeach the conduct of Spain, than was necessary for establishing the casus fœderis on behalf of Portugal. To have gone further to have made a full state-in behalf of Portugal are notorious as the ment of the case against Spain-would noon-day sun. That interference is our have been to preclude the very object whole present object. To prove more which I have in view; that of enabling than is sufficient for that object, by papers Spain to preserve peace without dishonour. laid upon the table of this House, would The hon. gentleman who spoke last, have been to preclude Spain from that indeed, in his extreme love for peace, locus pænitentia which we are above all proposes expedients which, as it appears things desirous to preserve to her. It is to me, would render war inevitable. He difficult, perhaps, with the full knowledge would avoid interference at this moment, which the government must in such cases when Spain may be yet hesitating as to possess, to judge what exact portion of the course which she shall adopt; and that knowledge should be meted out for the language which he would hold to our present purpose, without hazarding Spain is, in effect, this "You have not an exposure which might carry us too far. yet done enough to implicate British I know not how far I have succeeded in faith, and to provoke British honour. You this respect; but I can assure the House, have not done enough, in merely enabling that if the time should unfortunately arPortuguese rebels to invade Portugal, and rive when a further exposition shall beto carry destruction into her cities; you come necessary, it will be found, that it have not done enough in combining knots was not for want of evidence that my of traitors, whom-after the most solemn statement of this day has been defective. engagements to disarm and to disperse An Amendment has been proposed, them you carefully re-assembled, and purporting a delay of a week, but, in equipped and sent back with Spanish effect, intended to produce a total abanarms, to be plunged into kindred Portu- donment of the object of the Address; guese bosoms. I will not stir for all these and that amendment has been justified by things. Pledged though I am by the a reference to the conduct of the governmost solemn obligations of treaty to resentment, and to the language used by me in attack upon Portugal as injurious to Eng- this House, between three and four years land, I love too dearly the peace of Europe ago. It is stated, and truly, that I did to be goaded into activity by such trifles not then deny that cause for war had as these.-No.-But give us a good been given by France in the invasion of declaration of war, and then I'll come Spain, if we had then thought fit to enter and fight you with all my heart."-This into war on that account. But it seems is the hon. gentleman's contrivance for to be forgotten that there is one main difkeeping peace. The more clumsy con- ference between that case and the present trivance of his majesty's government is which difference, however, is essential this: "We have seen enough to show and all-sufficient. We were then free to to the world that Spain authorised, if she go to war, if we pleased, on grounds of did not instigate, the invasion of Portugal; political expediency. But we were not and we say to Spain, Beware; we will then bound to interfere, on behalf of Spain, avenge the cause of our ally, if you break as we now are bound to interfere on behalf out into declared war; but, in the mean of Portugal, by the obligations of treaty. time, we will take effectual care to frustrate War might then have been our free choice, your concealed hostilities.'" I appeal to if we had deemed it politic: interference my hon. friend, the member for Dorset- on behalf of Portugal is now our duty, shire, whether he does not prefer this unless we are prepared to abandon the course of his majesty's government, the principles of national faith and national object of which is to nip growing hos-honour. It is a singular confusion of

in any war in which this country might be engaged, in the present unquiet state of the minds of men in Europe. These are the expedients, the tremendous character of which I ventured to adumbrate rather than to describe, in the speech with which I prefaced the present motion. Such expedients 1 disclaim. I dread and deprecate the employment of them. So far, indeed, as Spain herself is concerned, the employment of such means would be strictly, I might say, epigrammatically, just. The Foreign Enlistment Act was passed in the year 1819, if not at the direct request, for the especial benefit, of Spain. What right, then, would Spain have to complain if we should repeal it now, for the especial benefit of Portugal ? The Spanish refugees have been harboured in this country, it is true; but on condition of abstaining from hostile expeditions against Spain; and more than once, when such expeditions have been planned, the British government has interfered to suppress them. How is this tenderness for Spain rewarded?-Spain not only harbours, and fosters, and sustains, but arms,

intellect which confounds two cases so precisely dissimilar. Far from objecting to the reference to 1823, I refer to that same occasion to show the consistency of the conduct of myself and my colleagues. We were then accused of truckling to France, from a pusillanimous dread of war. We pleaded guilty to the charge of wishing to avoid war. We described its inexpediency, its inconveniences, and its dangers (dangers, especially of the same sort with those which I have hinted at to-day); but we declared that, although we could not overlook those dangers, those inconveniences, and that inexpediency, in a case in which remote interest and doubtful policy were alone assigned as motives for war; we would cheerfully affront them all, in a case-if it should arrive where national faith or national honour were concerned. Well, then-a case has now arisen, of which the essence is faith, of which the character is honour. And when we call upon parliament, not for offensive war-which was proposed to us in 1823-but for defensive armament, we are referred to our abstinence in 1823, as disqualifying us for exertion at the pre-equips and marshals the traitorous refusent moment; and are told, that because we did not attack France on that occasion, we must not defend Portugal on this. I, Sir, like the proposers of the amendment, place the two cases of 1823 and 1826 side by side, and deduce from them, when taken together, the exposition and justification of our general policy. I appeal from the warlike preparations of to-day, to the forbearance of 1823, in proof of the pacific character of our counsels;-I appeal from the imputed tameness of 1823 to the Message of tonight, in illustration of the nature of those motives, by which a government, generally pacific, may nevertheless be justly roused into action.

Having thus disposed of the objections to the Address, I come next to the suggestions of some who profess themselves friendly to the purpose of it, but who would carry that purpose into effect by means which I certainly cannot approve. It has been suggested, Sir, that we should at once ship off the Spanish refugees, now in this country, for Spain; and that we should, by the repeal of the Foreign Enlistment Act, let loose into the contest all the ardent and irregular spirits of this country. Sir, this is the very suggestion which I have anticipated with apprehension,

gees of Portugal, and pours them by thousands into the bosom of Great Britain's nearest ally. So far, then, as Spain is concerned, the advice of those who would send forth against Spain such dreadful elements of strife and destruction is, as I have admitted, not unjust. But I repeat, again and again, that I disclaim all such expedients;-and that I dread especially a war with Spain, because it is the war of all others in which, by the example and practice of Spain herself, such expedients are most likely to be adopted. Let us avoid that war if we can,-that is if Spain will permit us to do so. But in any case, let us endeavour to strip any war-if war we must have-of that formidable and disastrous character which the hon. and learned gentleman has so eloquently described; and which I was happy to hear him concur with me in deprecating, as the most fatal evil by which the world could be afflicted.

Sir, there is another suggestion with which I cannot agree, although brought forward by two honourable members, who have, in the most handsome manner, stated their reasons for approving of the line of conduct now pursued by his majesty's government. Those honourable members insist, that the French army in

Spain has been, if not the cause, the en- I have achieved, at great cost of blood and couragement, of the late attack by Spain treasure, an honourable peace; but as to against Portugal; that his majesty's go-getting the French out of Spain, that would vernment were highly culpable in allowing that army to enter into Spain, that its stay there is highly injurious to British interests and honour, and that we ought instantly to call upon France to withdraw it.

have been the one object which you almost certainly would not have accomplished. How seldom, in the whole history of the wars of Europe, has any war between two great powers ended, in the obtaining of the exact, the identical, object for which the war was begun!

Besides, Sir, I confess I think, that the effects of the French occupation of Spain have been infinitely exaggerated.

There are, Sir, so many considerations connected with these propositions, that were I to enter into them all, they would carry me far beyond what is either necessary or expedient to be stated on the present occasion. Enough, perhaps, it is for I do not blame those exaggerations; me to say, that I do not see how the with- because I am aware that they are to be drawing of the French troops from Spain attributed to the recollections of some of could effect our present purpose. I be- the best times of our history; that they lieve, Sir, that the French army in Spain are the echoes of sentiments, which, in the is now a protection to that very party days of William and of Anne, animated which it was originally called in to put the debates and dictated the votes of the down. Were the French army suddenly British parliament. No peace was in those removed at this precise moment, I verily days thought safe for this country while believe that the immediate effect of that the crown of Spain continued on the head removal would be, to give full scope to the of a Bourbon. But were not the appreunbridled rage of a fanatical faction, be-hensions of those days greatly overstated? fore which in the whirlwind of intestine strife, the party least in numbers would be swept away.

So much for the immediate effect of the demand which it is proposed to us to make, if that demand were instantly successful. But when, with reference to the larger question of a military occupation of Spain by France, it is averred, that by that occupation the relative situation of Great Britain and France is altered; that France is thereby exalted and Great Britain lowered, in the eyes of Europe;-I must beg leave to say, that I dissent from that averment. The House knows-the country knows-that when the French army was on the point of entering Spain, his majesty's government did all in their power to prevent it; that we resisted it by all means, short of war. I have just now stated some of the reasons why we did not think the entry of that army into Spain a sufficient ground for war; but there was, in addition to those which I have stated, this peculiar reason,-that whatever effect a war, commenced upon the mere ground of the entry of a French army into Spain, might have, it probably would not have had the effect of getting that army out of Spain. In a war against France at that time, as at any other, you might perhaps, have acquired military glory; you might, perhaps, have extended your colonial possessions; you might even

Has the power of Spain swallowed up the power of maritime England? Or does England still remain, after the lapse of more than a century, during which the crown of Spain has been worn by a Bourbon,-niched in a nook of that same Spain, Gibraltar; an occupation which was contemporaneous with the apprehensions that I have described, and which has happily survived them?

No,

Again, Sir, is the Spain of the present day the Spain of which the statesmen of the times of William and Anne were so much afraid? Is it indeed the nation whose puissance was expected to shake England from her sphere? Sir, it was quite another Spain-it was the Spain, within the limits of whose empire the sun never set-it was Spain "with the Indies" that excited the jealousies and alarmed the imaginations of our ancestors.

But then, Sir, the balance of power!

The entry of the French army into Spain disturbed that balance, and we ought to have gone to war to restore it! I have already said, that when the French army entered Spain, we might, if we chose, have resisted or resented that measure by war. But were there no other means than war for restoring the balance of power?-Is the balance of power a fixed and unalterable standard? Or is it not a standard perpetually varying, as civilization advances, and as new nations spring up, and

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take their place among established politi-sation brought against his majesty's gocal communities? The balance of power vernment, of having allowed the French a century and a half ago was to be ad- army to usurp and to retain the occupajusted between France and Spain, the tion of Spain. That occupation, I am and England. quite confident, is an unpaid, and unreNetherlands, Austria, and Some years afterwards, Russia assumed deemed burthen to France. It is a burher high station in European politics. then of which, I verily believe, France Some years after that again, Prussia be- would be glad to rid herself. But they came not only a substantive, but a pre- know little of the feelings of the French ponderating monarchy. Thus, while the government, and of the spirit of the French balance of power continued in principle nation, who do not know, that, worthless the same, the means of adjusting it be- or burthensome as that occupation may came more varied and enlarged. They be, the way to rivet her in it, would be, to make the continuance of that occupabecame enlarged, in proportion to the in- by angry or intemperate representations, creased number of considerable states,in proportion, I may say, to the number tion a point of honour. of weights which might be shifted into the one or the other scale. To look to the policy of Europe, in the times of William and Anne, for the purpose of regulating the balance of power in Europe at the present day, is to disregard the progress of events, and to confuse dates and facts which throw a reciprocal light upon each other.

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in the train of national degradation. If, under circumstances like these, you wait till Spain has matured her secret machinations into open hostility, you will in a little while have the sort of war required by the pacificators;-and who shall say where that war will end?

I believe, Sir, there is no other subject upon which I need enter into defence or explanation. The support which the Address has received from all parties in the House, has been such as would make it both unseemly and ungrateful in me to trespass unnecessarily upon their patience. more declare, that the object of the AdIn conclusion, Sir, I shall only once It would be disingenuous, indeed, not dress, which I propose to you, is not war: If you do not go forth, on this to admit that the entry of the French its object is, to take the last chance of army into Spain, was in a certain sense, peace. and then will come war a disparagement--an affront to the pride occasion to the aid of Portugal, Portugal -a blow to the feelings of England and will be trampled down, to your, irretrievait can hardly be supposed that the govern-ble disgrace: ment did not sympathize, on that occasion, with the feelings of the people. But I deny that, questionable or censurable as the act might be, it was one which necessarily called for our direct and hostile opposition. Was nothing then to be done? Was there no other mode of resistance, than by a direct attack upon France-or by a war to be undertaken on the soil of Spain? What, if the possession of Spain might be rendered harmless in rival hands harmless as regarded us-and valueless Might not compensato the possessors? tion for disparagement be obtained, and the policy of our ancestors vindicated, by means better adapted to the present time? If France occupied Spain, was it necessary, in order to avoid the consequences of that occupation-that we should blockade Cadiz? No. I looked another way -I sought materials of compensation in, another hemisphere. Contemplating Spain, such as our ancestors had known her, I resolved that if France had Spain, it should not be Spain "with the Indies." I called the New World into existence, to redress the balance of the Old.

The amendment was negatived, there appearing only three or four members in favour of it. The original Address was then put and agreed to.

HOUSE OF COMMONS. Wednesday, December 13. CORN-LAWS-ADJOURNMENT OF THE HOUSE.] Mr. Secretary Peel said, that, in pursuance of the notice of adjournment, which was given last night by his right hon. friend (Mr. Canning), who was prevented from attending this day, owing to the fatigue which had sprung from his great exertions when last in his He could not refrain from place, he rose to move that the House at its rising do adjourn to the 8th of Feavailing himself of the present opportunity, bruary next. It is thus, Sir, that I answer the accu- ! to express his entire conviction, that the

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